{"id":116357,"date":"2025-04-24T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T23:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/24\/kirkland-and-simpson-turned-to-major-trump-fundraiser-before-bending-a-knee\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T15:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T23:44:15","slug":"kirkland-and-simpson-turned-to-major-trump-fundraiser-before-bending-a-knee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/24\/kirkland-and-simpson-turned-to-major-trump-fundraiser-before-bending-a-knee\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirkland And Simpson Turned To Major Trump Fundraiser Before Bending A Knee"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now, followers of the legal industry \u2014 and even those outside \u2014 are aware that a number of Biglaw firms decided to capitulate to the threats of Donald Trump <\/a>rather than defend the rule of law. We may never know exactly how that sausage was made \u2014 what combination of greed, self-interest, apathy, naivety, and pragmatism came together at each firm that led them to make these terrible deals. But there are some clues about what went on.<\/p>\n

Like the fact that in the run up to bending a knee, both Kirkland & Ellis<\/a> and Simpson Thacher<\/a> paid lobbyists with strong ties to Donald Trump to advise them. As reported by<\/a> Law.com:<\/p>\n

\n

Kirkland & Ellis and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett each turned to lobbying powerhouse Ballard Partners for \u201cadvice related to employment practices\u201d as they were forming a\u00a0deal\u00a0with the White House, according to new lobbying disclosures. Kirkland and Simpson Thacher each paid Ballard $100,000 for lobbying work on their firm\u2019s behalf in the first quarter of this year, according to the new Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.<\/p>\n

The registered lobbyists for Kirkland and Simpson included Brian Ballard, who founded Ballard Partners and was a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, as well as partners Justin Sayfie and Sylvester Lukis.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As part of their deals with the administration, both Kirkland and Simpson also settled<\/a> the EEOC investigations<\/a> into their DEI programs.<\/p>\n

No wonder they inked deals with Trump. Much like AI, when you put garbage in, you get garbage out. <\/a>But even outside the analogy, it also underscores the amount of money and effort the firms put in to taking the cowardly way out.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Kirkland And Simpson Turned To Major Trump Fundraiser Before Bending A Knee<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by David Becker\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By now, followers of the legal industry \u2014 and even those outside \u2014 are aware that a number of Biglaw firms decided to capitulate to the threats of Donald Trump <\/a>rather than defend the rule of law. We may never know exactly how that sausage was made \u2014 what combination of greed, self-interest, apathy, naivety, and pragmatism came together at each firm that led them to make these terrible deals. But there are some clues about what went on.<\/p>\n

Like the fact that in the run up to bending a knee, both Kirkland & Ellis<\/a> and Simpson Thacher<\/a> paid lobbyists with strong ties to Donald Trump to advise them. As reported by<\/a> Law.com:<\/p>\n

\n

Kirkland & Ellis and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett each turned to lobbying powerhouse Ballard Partners for \u201cadvice related to employment practices\u201d as they were forming a\u00a0deal\u00a0with the White House, according to new lobbying disclosures. Kirkland and Simpson Thacher each paid Ballard $100,000 for lobbying work on their firm\u2019s behalf in the first quarter of this year, according to the new Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.<\/p>\n

The registered lobbyists for Kirkland and Simpson included Brian Ballard, who founded Ballard Partners and was a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, as well as partners Justin Sayfie and Sylvester Lukis.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As part of their deals with the administration, both Kirkland and Simpson also settled<\/a> the EEOC investigations<\/a> into their DEI programs.<\/p>\n

No wonder they inked deals with Trump. Much like AI, when you put garbage in, you get garbage out. <\/a>But even outside the analogy, it also underscores the amount of money and effort the firms put in to taking the cowardly way out.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now, followers of the legal industry \u2014 and even those outside \u2014 are aware that a number of Biglaw firms decided to capitulate to the threats of Donald Trump rather than defend the rule of law. We may never know exactly how that sausage was made \u2014 what combination of greed, self-interest, apathy, naivety, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-URlrAj.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}